Lekopanye Mooketsi
26 August 2008
The Botswana Ostrich Company (BOC) abattoir has been slaughtering cattle due to a shortage of the birds, officials have said.
The abattoir manager, Freeman Mogaga told Business Today that they do not have ostriches to slaughter because farmers are not supplying them.
"The little that they (farmers) have are for breeding and not for meat. We are slaughtering cattle for survival," Mogaga said. He added that the abattoir is multi-purpose and can be used to slaughter game or cattle.
He said when the abattoir was opened in 2002, there were good supplies and the ostrich business had potential. Mogaga said the abattoir has a capacity to slaughter 120 birds in a day. It is an export abattoir licensed to supply the European market. Even though the business is export-oriented, Mogaga said there is a growing market locally.
He lamented that they are losing business because they have no birds to slaughter. "We have a market which we cannot supply. Our main problem is that we don't have a supply of ostriches. We can't export in little quantities because the freight charges are very high. We used to supply the European Union," he said. He said the abattoir is the only export outlet for the producers.
The abattoir was closed in March 2006 and re-opened in October due to a low supply of birds for slaughter. At some stage, the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) suspended funding for ostrich farming because of the closure of the abattoir.
The abattoir is owned by the Ministry of Agriculture but is leased to the Botswana Ostrich Company. It is located along the Sir Seretse Khama Airport road. It started exporting to the European market in August 2005 but the demand far outweighed supply.
Since its inception, Botswana Ostrich Company has been operating the abattoir below capacity due to low throughput.
The continuous under utilisation of the abattoir led to financial losses and finally to temporary closure of the facility in 2006. In realisation of the problems besieging the ostrich industry, government has come up with a long term strategy for revival and meeting the required throughput of 15,000 birds a year.
The target throughput for slaughter is to be achieved through the establishment of the ostrich multiplication unit at Dibete and from farmers. The development of an ostrich multiplication unit is to serve as a source of both breeders and growers for farmers.
The three-year project is estimated to cost P13 million. When the Dibete project was started, 328 breeding birds were acquired and the plan was to have 500.
Local ostrich farmer, Ndingo Johwa said production has slowed at his farm since there has been no breeding.
He said they are waiting to buy supplies from the government multiplication farm. Johwa said the government will produce the chicks and sell them to farmers.
He said the government has been buying birds from farmers for the Dibete farm. He is not happy that the government rejected his 20 birds because it has already acquired 300 from another farmer.
"I was very sad. It really hurts," he said.However, he pointed out that breeding and raising chicks is a very expensive exercise.
He said the biggest challenge facing farmers is the high price of ostrich.
He appealed for a government subsidy for the feed. "With the escalation of fuel prices, it is not going to be easy to feed the ostriches," he said.
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